1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital television (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cTVxe2x80x9d), and more particularly, to a method for updating electronic program guide (EPG) information and a device thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital broadcasting system for the next generation such as HDTV (high-definition television) can versatilely allocate necessary bit rates when needed for desired services. That is, it is possible to transmit multiple programs through an RF channel with a limited transmission bandwidth. For example, standard definition television (SDTV) programs can be planned on multichannels for a period of time, and HDTV programs on a single channel for another time period. This concept is called ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) which is referred to as a basic concept of the digital broadcasting system at the international conference such as ITU-R (International Telecommunication Unio-Radio Communication Sector).
Accordingly, it is necessary for the digital multichannel TV broadcasting to display program guide information on TV screen so that users can select a desired one from several programs. In the U.S.A., a special EPG regulation is provided for the digital broadcasting such as HDTV. That is, a TV broadcast station transmits EPG information through each RF channel, whereby a TV set stores the EPG information and displays it on a TV screen when a user requests such information. An example of such an EPG regulation is the EPG standard of ATSC (United States Advanced Television System Committee) in the U.S.A.
The EPG information is received through a viewing channel, i.e., a current channel selected, whereby the preceding EPG information stored before is updated based on the new information when the former is different from the latter.
Besides, it is very probable that each TV broadcast station transmits its own EPG and users watch only on specific channels. In such cases, the EPG information of the channels except the current channel cannot be updated, and accordingly, although the EPG information of the channels is changed, the TV set still has the old EPG information different from the new one. Consequently, users are provided with erroneous EPG information on other channels except the current channel selected. Therefore, if a user wants to see EPG information on other channels not selected, he must interrupt the current TV channel to change to another channel for the EPG information concerned.
As described above, the EPG information on the current channel can be updated, while the EPG information on another channels not viewed by a user can not be updated, or the current TV channel must be interrupted and changed to another channel desired to see its EPG information.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for immediately updating the EPG information about all the channels of the digital TV set based on the latest correct EPG information and a device thereof.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a device for updating EPG information in a digital TV receiver having a first and a second tuner while viewing a channel selected by the first tuner, the device comprising first and second IF modules each converting IF signals output from the respective first and second tuners depending upon the channel selections into respective baseband signals, first and second channel decoders each converting baseband signals from the respective first and second IF modules to channel signals so as to reconstruct respective data bit streams, a first TS decoder separating respective audio data, video data, and EPG data from the data bit stream reconstructed by the first channel decoder, a second TS decoder separating auxiliary data from the data bit stream reconstructed by the second channel decoder, a memory to store the EPG information, and a controller to update the memory with the EPG data separated by the second TS decoder from the data bit stream obtained through the other channels selected by the second tuner.